Unconference Success: DELTA-Con 2022

DELTA-Con was first started at NC State in August of 2017 and has had many iterations over the years, but at its core — it is still an unconference. What is an unconference? An unconference takes the best part of a conference, the discussions between sessions, and makes them the highlight! There are no presenters and topics are decided the day of the sessions to be relevant to those attending. It is a great way to meet people from all over the state who are interested in the same educational technology topics.

“Participants help define the topics they’d like to discuss in unconferences, which keeps the content fresh, timely, and interactive.” – Instructional Designer Jason Whitley

DELTA-Con’s goal is to learn from the wisdom of the audience. Having faculty members and instructional technologists/designers share how they have made certain pedagogical strategies or tools can be inspiring to others.

“It is always so helpful to learn about how other instructors are using tools — I always get at least one or two new ideas about new ways to engage students using our instructional technology.” – Teaching Assistant Professor Sarah Egan Warren, Ph.D. 

“There were many ideas that I took away from DELTA-Con, one of them was learning about the Interactive Roadmap from Yan Shen and Carlos Goller. It became my mission after final grades were submitted to make an Interactive Roadmap on one of my course Moodle sites, and some TA’s and I did already!” – Lecturer Lisa Paciulli

This year, like many events on campus, DELTA-Con was a hybrid event with 15 in-person attendees and 35 virtual attendees. The hybrid format allowed for in-person attendees to switch physical rooms at CTI while our online attendees had zoom rooms to select from. Many of our attendees shared that having an opportunity to join online was the only way they could have attended the event. 

“The hybrid event allowed me to participate fully from my own office where I was able to manage some other end-of-semester priorities between sessions. I could not have done both if I had been in person at the event. I hope that we continue to leverage our instructional technology and the expertise with remote learning that we developed during the pandemic. Remote/hybrid events like this allow me to participate so much more and more often than when they were only in person,” added Warren.

“Hosting this as a hybrid event meant that I could attend. It was inclusive, and allowed people to attend DELTA-Con however they wanted,” said Paciulli.

Overall, we count this year’s DELTA-Con as a success and look forward to next year’s event!